Czech

Today's pale lagers trace their history to this style, and the original, Pilsner Urquell, still stands apart: rich, rounded malt, a bitterness more pronounced than you'd expect yet soft about it, and a spicy hop aroma from Saaz. It is fuller and rounder than a German pils, which runs drier and leans further toward the hops. The history starts with a protest: in 1838 the citizens of Pilsen, fed up with bad local beer, poured barrels of it out in front of the town hall, then founded their own brewery and brought in the Bavarian brewer Josef Groll. In 1842, using pale malt, soft Pilsen water and cold lager fermentation, he brewed what is usually called the first pale lager. One language note: in the Czech Republic the style itself is called světlý ležák, while "Pilsner" mostly refers to Pilsner Urquell.